Trying to get knocked up and stay knocked up for the second time... All while remembering what it is we're fighting for and raise our son...

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Infertility Awareness Week

It's all over the blogosphere that it's infertility awareness week and I figured this was a great time to retell my story.

My first miscarriage was when I was 21. An unplanned pregnancy where the guy I was dating literally said "You're joking right?" when I told him I was pregnant. He was relieved when it ended in a miscarriage - I on the other hand didn't know what to think. I knew it wasn't an ideal time to have a baby, but I was scared, but not terrified.

Flash forward 5 years to 2005 and I'm married to a wonderful man and we start on that baby making train. At the time we were living apart half of the time so timing was a thing we needed to just give it our best shot. We were successful after about 3 months trying... however things were weird. I started out spotting, then bleeding and yet still had a positive pregnancy test. I ended up calling my OB and he ordered a beta hcg with a repeat in 48 hours... I think that doubled, but the numbers were really low for where they should have been. Eventually I had another beta and that showed that the beta had fallen, but not where he wanted it to and we scheduled a d & c. I was for some reason worried about an ectopic pregnancy, but the doctor felt that wasn't the case. Flash forward to the day before my birthday and I awake after anesthetic to the news that it was indeed an ectopic. At that point I found the world wide web of blogs and started blogging.

By the time fall came around I had had another pregnancy with a wimpy beta and was pushing my doctor to do a endometrial biopsy to see how my lining was. We did that test in November and learned that my lining was not the plush pillow top matress one would hope, but a crappy motel mattress - no wonder pregnancies wouldn't stick. So - we tried clomid and progesterone supplements. We were hopeful this would fix things... alas it did not and at that point my doctor threw his hands in the air and said - you need to see an RE.

It took 2 months, but we went to the RE and he was impressed with all the testing we had already had done for recurrent miscarriage. I was devastated with the initial diagnosis of habitual aborter - it's just an awful diagnosis especially since we wanted a baby so badly - I know it's all about insurance coding, but come on come up with a nicer term please? He prescribed injectables after an HSG and to continue a different progesterone supplement. We continued to have positive pregnancy tests with wimpy betas. During a rest cycle (unmedicated) except for progesterone we had blighted ovum a year to the day of our previous d & c/ectopic pregnancy. We were beginning to be defeated.

Eventually we switched to IM progesterone with the injectables and off we were again. We did an IUI as well. I'm skimming a bit, but really no one wants to read of month after month of positive pregnancy test yet seriously shitty betas. It was about every other month that we were having a positive pregnancy test and each one would start off with that beautiful 2 lined test and the next day bleeding. It got to the point that I was able to tell what my beta was going to be based off the pregnancy test darkness.

We approached 2007 and decided we needed to take a break from formal treatment, after talking it over with the RE we decided to just do the IM progesterone and see what happened. If after a few months we'd reevaluate.

That was the cycle that became Squeaker or Not Negative Take 12. That pregnancy started off the same as all previous pregnancies... with bleeding. I had multiple betas and those had appropriate rise and were decent numbers, my progesterone was great. They have no idea why the bleeding. On January 31st we learned the pregnancy was in the uterus. The next week we had a heartbeat. We didn't feel out of the woods yet... we had an u/s every other week until we were released from the RE at 10 weeks. I spent most of my pregnancy in fear... I didn't think it was really going to happen until after 32 weeks... and then Squeaker came early at 35 weeks.

We were fortunate... not fortunate that it took 12 pregnancies total to have him, but fortunate that we have him at all and fortunate that in that journey to having him we met and found such incredible women and men who shared our journey with us. Maybe that was the reason - I don't know, but I'm thankful for having met you via the internet.

I don't know if our shot at a sibling for Squeaker will be successful. I can pray that it will be and I can pray that it won't be like the first time... however just thinking about trying makes me break out into a cold sweat - so stay tuned. In other words - not trying yet.